What A Difference A Week Makes

In my ongoing battle with stupidity I decided to sign up and run two half marathons in a week. I ran the Palos Bank Half Marathon last year and have ran the Indy Mini Marathon a couple of times in the past, so what the hell why not run them both this year. Well it just kind of played out that way and lets just say it was a great learning experience.

You see I had signed up for the Mini Marathon way back last fall and was not planning on running the Palos Bank Half. Indy is a great race, out of town, well run and just plain fun but I wanted to run Palos to compare where I was last year. I originally thought we were going to have to work the weekend of Palos and when that got changed I decided to sign up and give it a go. I wanted an apples to apples comparison to where I was from last year.

The Palos Half went well kind of. I did beat my time from last year and set a PR while still stopping to take a pee for the longest 40 seconds of my life but that is where all the good stops. I made a lot of mistakes and I paid for them dearly. I went out way to fast, didn't stick with my GU plan and did not eat right the day before or the morning of. These led to a miserable last two miles and a really sore body until Thursday.

Well what a difference a week makes, I was able to recover a lot during the week with running only 10 miles all week but I also made sure to eat and drink correctly all week. Going into the race I had set the expectations pretty low as I felt like crap most of the week, suffered at the end of the Palos race pretty good and quite honestly didn't know how my body would react to racing not running two halfs back to back, well it went pretty good. Not only did I beat time from the week before but I felt decent the entire race and did not let my miles differentiate more than 8 seconds except for the last two that were slightly faster than any of the previous 11.

What was the key here? I think pacing played a huge part but really the fueling I believe was the key. I went out a bit slow in mile one due to the amount of runners but I was able to dial in the pace and stay constant. Fueling wise the morning started with a coffee (black as cream messes with me), a cup of Monkey Brains oatmeal (best stuff ever) and about 30 minutes before the race a GU Roctane. I also made sure to take a Roctane at 30 minutes and on the hour. I did take two small cups of water on the course but more or less just to get the GU taste out of my mouth and to wipe some of the GU of my hands.

I was a bit sore on the ride home but felt great on Monday compared to the previous week, rolled the legs a bit on Monday with The Grid but besides that really no soreness.

I have to admit I was a bit suprised the Indy race went that well. Either way one goal for the year down a sub 1:34 half now I may have to up that to a sub 1:31 next year? Galena is only a week and a half out so need to get back in the pool as this two week break in masters is killing me.